Abstract
The aim of this study is to contribute to a better understanding of the nuances of multimodal communication through which educational designers construct shared meanings and ideas. Educational design is a broad and multi-faceted area. Meaning-making in face-to-face educational design meetings is a complex process but is yet to gain attention as a topic of research. Most educational design projects involve various stakeholders, including professional designers and people who offer distinct expertise according to the needs of the project. Effective communication is imperative in such environments. We need a thorough understanding of how educational designers work together before we theorise their practice and attempt to create prescriptive tools and process models. The analysis of the meaning-making process reported in this paper shows that educational design is accomplished through intricate verbal and non-verbal interaction with various tools, resources, and representations. In particular, the results show how educational designers reconstructed pre-created visual design artefacts through drawing inscriptions over them – blending digital and non-digital artefacts. In addition, this study shows that gestures are indispensable to the meaning-making process in educational design team meetings. It is important to build a body of knowledge in this area that supports the practice and research in educational design. This paper would be of primary interest to researchers who study the way in which educational design is accomplished. Beyond this, those who work as educational designers or those who work with educational designers, might benefit from an awareness of the different interactional tools at their disposal.
Highlights
Borrowed from cognitive semiotics, meaning-making in design is concerned with the construction of meaning – that is, ‘a thought induced in the receiver, which is originated by the contact with a design’ (Kazmierczak, 2003: 47)
A thorough understanding of how educational designers work is essential because the educational design ‘field is replete with prescriptive theories and systemic process models that attempt to theorize practice, often without a rich and detailed understanding of that practice’ (Gray et al, 2015: 43)
Research on inscriptions and gestures in educational design This paper reports the process of meaning-making by educational designers while they were working with visual representations and hand drawings
Summary
Borrowed from cognitive semiotics, meaning-making in design is concerned with the construction of meaning – that is, ‘a thought induced in the receiver, which is originated by the contact with a design’ (Kazmierczak, 2003: 47) It is an interpretive process which is the result of interaction between people and design artefacts and shapes how humans act toward designs (Ma, 2015) or representations of designs. Effective communication is considered imperative for educational designers to succeed in their roles (Ritzhaupt & Kumar, 2015). This communication is often multimodal (e.g. talk, gestures, posture, gaze, and drawing). Gestures in particular are an important part of multimodal interaction with the environment, including drawings, which can enrich our understanding of how people communicate and collaborate (Davidsen & Christiansen, 2014; Frølunde, 2009)
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